This approach has previously been explored with respect to a set of "essential" issues identified, in his capacity as Rector of the global education network Ananda Marga Gurukula, by Ac. Shambhushivananda Avadhuta as being of fundamental concern to the individual (Eternal Philosophy: Questions and Answers,, 2009). These were experimentally clustered in terms of those WH-questions (Clustering Questions of Existential Significance (2010). By comparison, the set identified by Inayatullah regarding financial issues might then be understood as "existential" issues fundamental to global governance of the collective. Both are concerned with intangibles, however tangible their implications. Both are curiously associated with the cognitive implication of confidence.

The following are therefore exercises in eliciting -- tentatively -- a more integrative framework for the seven narratives without seeking to comment on their selection or formulation. The purpose is to get a sense of the pattern of narratives as a whole rather than to focus on any one. This would then point to the possibility of a degree of resonance between the narratives such that the integrative framework could be understood as being a resonance hybrid dependent on all of them as alternatives variously held under different conditions and by different constituencies. The concern is primarily to explore a method of representation and its mnemonic value to comprehensive understanding, namely the complementarity of disparate approaches to a seemingly desperate global challenge. It follows from a separate exploration (Ungovernability of Sustainable Global Democracy? Towards engaging appropriately with time, 2010).

Association of narratives to WH-questions

An initial step is the association of the narratives distinguished by Inayatullah (2010) with WH-questions -- to determine (tentatively) primary and secondary questions for each. The tentative nature of the exercise calls for subsequent iterative "tuning" of the matrix of attributions (as a "fret"), at a later stage, in the light of the underlying significance of each narrative. There may well be several "tuning systems".

Attribution of WH questions to narratives ?

Narratives / Stories
(characterizing phrases)

WH-questions?

Where

When

What

Which

How

Who

Why

Primary

Secondary

x

x

x

x

x

I shop therefore I am
Live within one's means

Which

How

x

x

x

Loss of trust
Restore faith and trust

How

What

x

x

Creative destruction / Natural cycle
No pain, No gain

What

When

x

x

Day of reckoning for the West
Peaceful rise of Asia

Where

Who

x

x

x

We have sinned
Awakening inner spirit

Who

Why

x

x

x

Its not fair
Fair go for all

Why

Which

x

x

Endless rise of progress
Gaia tech

When

Where

There is then the possibility of treating each narrative as a line between the corresponding primary and secondary WH-questions. With the seven WH-questions as points around a circle, the lines could then be configured to form a heptagram -- which could be represented symmetrically or asymmetrically (as below). The connectivity might even be understood as oscillating between various configurations -- as a resonance hybrid.

Another representation is possible by splitting the WH-questions into a set of 3 (triplicities) and a set of 4 (quadruplicities) -- with one narrative per question, preferably using the "primary" attribution above

Quadruplicities (squares)

Triplicities (triangles)

Narratives

Where narrative

When narrative

Which narrative

What narrative

Loss of trust
Restore faith and trust

How narrative

How/Where

How/When

How/Which

How/What

We have sinned
Awakening inner spirit

Who narrative

Who/Where

Who/When

Who/Which

Who/What

Its not fair
Fair go for all

Why narrative

Why/Where

Why/When

Why/Which

Why/What

-

-

Day of reckoning for the West
Peaceful rise of Asia

Endless rise of progress
Gaia technology

I shop therefore I am
Live within one's means

Natural cycle
No pain, No gain

This could be displayed within a circle of 12 points (each being a combination of 2 WH-questions). Lines between the points then form:

4 triangles (triplicities): all who, how or why -- but each differently qualified by where, when, which, what

3 squares (quadruplicities): all where, when, which or what -- but each differently qualified by who, how, why

Long Decline, Depression and More ... Potentially the End Game of Capitalism

A New Era

Rather than using the simplest 12-faced polyhedron (a dodecahedron), as above, other implications might be introduced by displaying the 12 question combinations on a more complex figure leaving sets of faces blank, as indicated below using a truncated cuboctahedron. The question combinations (with narrative) are displayed on the 12 square faces (yellow), significantly separated by a set of 6 octagonal faces (red) and 8 hexagonal faces (blue). These might be understood as indicative of the number and nature of the dialogue arenas through which the strategies associated with each narrative (worldview) need to be reconciled in order to achieve a global approach.

In the two variants below, as a further indication of the challenge of relating the narratives coherently, in one case the red faces are "augmented" (outwards) by separating a pyramidal form, and in the other those red faces are "excavated" (inwards) by a pyramidal cavity. The modifications are coloured mauve.

Young's exploration evolved from consideration of the dimensions necessary to the control of a vehicle in three-dimensional space in the light of his insights as the developer of the Bell helicopter (Model 47). The question is whether the challenges of global governance may to some degree be understood as usefully modelled by the control of a helicopter. Young subsequently became interested in the application of his insights (to what might be called "self-governance") through exploration of the operation of a "psychopter" -- the helicopter as the "winged self", a metaphor for the human spirit.

Again as an exercise, the information from the row and column header information from the above table can be applied to 12 faces of a polyhedron -- appended (for each case) to the corresponding information from the earlier polyhedral application above. The example on the left uses a dodecahedron (as earlier). That on the right uses the 12 square faces of a small rhombihexahedron, with the pyramidal and cubic "excavations" suggestive of the potential challenges and traps in their reconciliation -- or the advantages in separating (insulating) one from the other.

It is interesting to consider the 12 modalities as 12 distinct ways of engaging with time -- complementary to one another. Each has particular geometrical / dynamic ("geodynamic") implications. Each implies a particular mode of cognition through which identity may be expressed and experienced. Given Young's focus on learning/action cycles, possibly to be associated with polyhedral great circles, this suggests the merit of exploring personal or collective "cyclic identity" (Emergence of Cyclical Psycho-social Identity: sustainability as "psyclically" defined, 2007).

Spherical constraint: It is indeed convenient and fruitful to represent the set of 12 modalities as a polyhedral approximation to a sphere, emphasizing the integrative challenge of "re-membering" these modalities to enable a "global" response. However such an exercise highlights the fundamental issue as to whether the requisite integration, for "governance" of any vehicle, can be appropriately "contained" by a purely spherical understanding of globality -- however good the approximation.

Beyond "Flat Earth" understanding: There is then every possibility that it is cognitively impossible to live sustainably on a single sphere -- on which the pattern of 12 different engagements with time can only be represented by 12 "flat Earth" worldviews, configured together as a polyhedral approximation to the globality implied by sustainability. Whilst it can be argued that metaphorically the dynamics of Earth's patterns of weather and ocean currents suggest otherwise, as with the dynamics within the Sun itself, consideration can usefully be given to the arguments of mathematicians and astrophysicists. As a planet the Earth is not sustainable in isolation but rather through its dynamics in relation to the Sun and the Moon (at least). The Earth system is sustainable because it orbits and is orbited. "Globality" is not viable when understood in terms of the static geometry of a single sphere -- as is so commonly the manner of its representation.

Given the classic examples offered by mathematicians regarding how the fingers of a three-dimensional hand would appear within a two dimensional worldview (cognitively disassociated from the integrating three-dimensional hand), it is appropriate to consider that the apparent isolation of the bodies of the planetary system in three dimensions is equally "illusory", given their necessary association as a system in four dimensions -- in spacetime. The requisite dimensionality might call for yet further development of this argument.

Paradoxes of "cognitive fusion": The argument can be made otherwise by reference to the principal hope for sustainable energy resources for the longer term -- namely nuclear fusion. Curiously the viability of this process is understood to be dependent on the containment of plasma circulating in a toroidal chamber. It is vital that the plasma be prevented from touching the containing walls of the reaction chamber -- which it would otherwise destroy. A spherical chamber was rejected for this purpose because of the impossibility of ensuring this separation.

Toroidal movement: The toroidal pathway around which the plasma "circulates" -- although this notion is itself incompatible with the paradoxical reality -- might be fruitfully compared with the toroidal pathway traced by the Earth around the Sun. The capacity to comprehend the latter movement proved to be a major challenge over past centuries. In a sense when this movement operates sustainably, the Earth can benefit from the energy of the Sun. This energy benefit has yet to be achieved in the case of a nuclear fusion reactor.

The case can be presented otherwise with reference to the dynamics visibly associated with a smoke ring -- a torus (as a geometric complexification of a sphere). The ring is dynamically sustainable where a typical sphere shows no indication of dynamic sustainability. A sphere cannot even "hover". Considering the electromagnetic fields required for operation of a nuclear fusion reactor, the principles ensuring the operation of a motor or dynamo also offer insights. As noted above, the Earth achieves a degree of sustainability of its natural systems through its movement along a toroidal pathway. Given common use of "motor" and "dynamo" as economic metaphors, achievement of global sustainability calls for cognitive analogues implied by such metaphors.

Toroidal connectivity: Toroidal reframing of the challenge of "globality" can also be fruitfully explored in the light of fundamental assumptions regarding the adequacy of representation of governance principles on a flat surface -- as declarations, plans, arguments, maps and the like (as in this document). In discussing these assumptions, Michael Schiltz contrasts use of a flat surface with use of a torus to achieve higher connectivity and self-reflexiity (Form and Medium: a mathematical reconstruction, Image [&] Narrative, 6, 2003).

Embodiment of time

Understanding "growth": Following from the preceding paper, the question is whether the above arguments are indicative of new ways of engaging with time -- vital to future governance (Ungovernability of Sustainable Global Democracy? Towards engaging appropriately with time, 2010). As noted above, the adaptation of Young's framework to complementary strategies has the merit of bringing in the (inverse) time dimension with regard to various understandings of "growth", perhaps usefully distinguished as:

T0 (stasis / subsistence): framed pejoratively as "going nowhere" and therefore incompatible with the vital need for developmental growth, and therefore urgently to be superseded (except in the light of deprecated arguments for "zero growth" or in terms of "nostalgic" appreciations of traditional economic systems)

T-1 (rate of change / growth): framed universally as the key to "development", and the accumulation of wealth, essential to a healthy viable society

T-2 (increasing rate of change / accelerating growth): framed as to be even more appreciated
in a competitive environment (and possibly even essential to outpace accumulating environmental challenges)

T-3 (controlled growth / sustainability): framed (idealistically) as the key to a healthy balance between growth and ensuring the continued viability of environmental resources. This may well be as elusive in practice as controlling nuclear fusion -- or achieving the "cognitive fusion" appropriate to sustaining it.

Controlling "snakes": The argument above stresses the necessary complementarity between these approaches to time, articulating them further in the light of associated strategic (WH-) questions. Clearly it is the "control" modality that is cognitively and strategically the most challenging -- and the most difficult to render comprehensible in the face of unquestioning enthusiasm for rapid growth and its acceleration framed as keys to survival. In kinesthetic terms, it is the disciplined acquisition of the control modality which safely frames aerobatics -- otherwise most probably with disastrous consequences.

In the case of plasma in a fusion reactor, the technical challenge is very specifically one of control -- with the literature appropriately characterizing this metaphorically as controlling potentially disastrously writhing, snake-like instabilities. Somewhat ironically, the snake metaphor ("snake in the tunnel") has also been used with respect to governance of instabilities in the European monetary system.

Unsustainable understanding of reality: It is however intriguing that fundamental physics continues to be challenged by the inadequacy of its understanding of reality. This might be reframed as a recognition by the most sophisticated minds of the essentially unsustainable (and destabilizing) human understanding of reality as currently conceived. Intriguingly this derives in part from the dynamics between the disciplines (Nicholas Rescher, Strife of Systems: an essay on the grounds and implications of philosophical diversity,, 1985; John Woods, Paradox and Paraconsistency: conflict resolution in the abstract sciences, 2002). All is seemingly not well with the human understanding of reality (Beyond the Standard Model of Universal Awareness, 2010) .

There is therefore a case for exploring further the kind of radical reframing which is so delightfully characteristic of fundamental physics -- and about which society is so curiously indulgent, to the point of funding extremely expensive "big science" projects to further such reflection. As one example, the Large Hadron Collider might be seen as another "tail-biting" experiment in control, offering suggestive pointers to the cognitive challenge (Dynamic Interrelationship of Symbols of Coherent Experiential Representation of Nonduality (DISCERN), 2008). It might be considered extraordinary, in a period of significant global starvation and bloody conflict, that "big science" should pride itself on its focus on the origins of the universe, and dispatching spacecraft to other planets, without an iota of capacity to apply the quality of such thinking to global governance -- presumably a challenge of greater than mechanical complexity.

Despite the dramatic crises of the times, and those expected in a turbulent future, curiously there is no such investment in radical reframing of the cognitive challenges of governance -- other than in military terms, with Afghanistan as one testing ground. Indeed universities and think tanks might be understood as avoiding and repressing any such exploration (Meta-challenges of the Future -- for networking through think-tanks, 2005; Tank-thoughts from Think-tanks: constraining metaphors on developing global governance, 2003). The reception of Atkin's own thesis -- a study of communication patterns within his university -- is but one indication of the problem (Combinatorial Connectivities in Social Systems: an application of simplicial complex structures to the study of large organizations, 1977).

"Doing nothing": There is an interesting challenge to comprehension of control in time (T-3) in contrast with the appearance of stasis (T0). As traditionally said of an emperor in classical China, his role as supreme governor was "to do nothing". When identity is primarily associated with growth (whether of the form T-1 or T-2), stasis (T0) may well be indistinguishable from control (T-3). This is evident in critical discussion of "zero growth" strategies. The distinction is well made in the example of a toroidal smoke ring which might be cited as a case of "both-and" -- of control (T-3) and the appearance of stasis (T0). This is also evident in the case of the capacity of a helicopter to hover, namely not to go anywhere. It points to the dynamics associated with "tail-biting" and the technical challenge of nuclear fusion on which future global energy resources are expected to depend.

Time as an illusion: Pursuing the latest reflections in fundamental physics, it is now argued that time may itself be an illusion (Craig Callender, Is Time an Illusion?, Scientific American, June 2010).

Whilst comparatively simple arguments have been made regarding the illusory nature of economic "growth", the question is how can the distinct apparent forms of time be reframed to give fruitful meaning to such an understanding -- responding to the cognitive challenges which justify questioning the reality of time by physics.

Conventional wisdom held that spacetime geometry should fluctuate on quantum scales, altering how events relate to one another. But in that case, an event that was supposed to cause another may no longer do so, creating paradoxes such as those found in time-travel stories. In twistor theory, causal sequences are primary and do not fluctuate... Instead the location and timing of events fluctuate. But twistorians could not make this idea precise -- until string theorists showed that an event of ambiguous location and time is nothing more or less than a string.

Many physicists find it quite natural that spacetime would be derivative in the light of such insights. Andrew Hodges points out that we do not perceive spacetime directly; we infer that events happen in specific locations at specific times from the information that comes to us. He asserts: This idea of points of spacetime as being primary objects is artificial. Indeed, the concept of distinct positions and times breaks down because of the gravitational warping of spacetime and the notoriously spooky connections between quantum particles.
But as Musser notes:

Theorists have yet to explain why, if spacetime is merely a construct, it nonetheless seems so real to us. It must somehow take shape much as life springs from inanimate matter. Whatever the process is, it cannot occur only on subatomic scales, because the concept of size must itself emerge. It should be evident on all scales, everywhere around us, if only we know how to look. [emphasis added]

What might this imply for sustainable global governance -- "if only we know how to look"? What might it imply for individual identity -- in time?

Comprehension of reality: A more sobering point is made by Musser to the effect that:

The emerging theory of spacetime is still very tentative and so mathematically dense that even those physicists directly involved admit they can barely follow what is going on.

Isomorphism: In this respect it is interesting that a new application offered by web search engines is the identification of images of similar form however disparate their content -- through development of pattern recognition techniques. There is then a sense that significance is to a degree associated with form and pattern irrespective of content. As with Marshall McLuhan, the "medium is the message" -- at least to some degree. This insight is reflected in the concern with the significance of isomorphism in general systems research -- now presumably to be echoed in the application of cybernetics to knowledge systems and cognition.

It is in this sense that the following images are a fruitful provocation with regard to "looking". That on the right derives from a depiction of a twistor -- as a twisted torus -- by Roger Penrose (On the Origins of Twistor Theory, 1987) and reproduced in enhanced form by George Musser (Scientific American, June 2010). That on the left is of the latest aircraft engine. There is of course a question of their degree of isomorphism, but more relevant to this argument would be the functional implications of any such isomorphism.

Rather than any question of validity or truth implied by the juxtaposition of such depictions, the issue may be more whether the human brain is better able to frame their functional implications through them at this time. "Cutting edge" technology may be so precisely because it is at the frontier of human cognitive capacity (Robert Romanyshyn, Technology as Symptom and Dream, 1989). Fusion -- cognitive or otherwise -- may require geometry at the limits of comprehension. The twisted torus -- a twistor -- is especially appropriate topologically as a cognitive knot (Intercourse with Globality through Enacting a Klein bottle, 2009).

Poetry of form: Isomorphism has a technical meaning and precision in the systems sciences which would readily challenge the significance of any of modest degree, possibly labelling it as trivial. Design aesthetics however admits of looser comparability between forms as being of significance through the manner in which they echo one another to a degree -- even valuing variation. As noted by Willard Bohn (Modern Visual Poetry, 2001) in discussing "isomorphic operations":

Object and meaning are not opposed to one another any more than structure and meaning. while they represent different aspects of the semiotic process, they are intimately related. The poets themselves speak of "isomorphism" in discussing the complex interplay that exists between them. the relation between word and image is isomorphic, they explain, if the visual elements assume a form that is anlogous to the vebal meaning. (p. 237)

He notes that parallel to form-subject isomorphism, there is space-time isomorphism which generates movement. Is there then a case for being attentive to the manner in which disparate forms, with which significance is distinctly associated (as with verses of a poem), may resonate with one other through a degree of isomorphism, suggesting higher orders of significance -- overtones of meaning? Larger implications may be held by associations amongst a set of poems, as is the case with any set of buildings of concern in large scale urban planning. With respect to the distinct global finance narratives identified by Inayatullah, as with those of the epic tale of Lord of the Rings, the question is the nature of what "binds" them (Relevance of Mythopoeic Insights to Global Challenges: cognitive integration implied by the Lord of the Rings, 2009).

Any technical consideration, such as an effort towards an environmental "sustainability", can become the vehicle of poetry in architecture. As a matter of fact, technical considerations often become the main source of architectural poetry by fostering a dramatic conflict between desire for architectural freedom and limited availability of resources. The felicitous resolution of such conflict is the golden standard of architectural quality and beauty, and to be achieved requires the adoption of a holistic approach towards design.

Implicit in such recognition is the more general question of the nature of the poetry of form and its relevance to the process of giving meaning to the pattern of relationships between the seemingly disparate and far less tangible forms of the cognitive realm as considered here. For example, the biologist/anthropologist Gregory Bateson, in explaining why "we are our own metaphor", pointed out to a conference on the effects of conscious purpose on human adaptation that:

One reason why poetry is important for finding out about the world is because in poetry a set of relationships get mapped onto a level of diversity in us that we don't ordinarily have access to. We bring it out in poetry. We can give to each other in poetry the access to a set of relationships in the other person and in the world that we are not usually conscious of in ourselves. So we need poetry as knowledge about the world and about ourselves, because of this mapping from complexity to complexity. (Cited by Mary Catherine Bateson, 1972, pp. 288-9)

As discussed separately, there is a potential relationship of fundamental significance between the poiesis of poetry and the autopoiesis that is of primary concern to the complexity sciences (Voice of the Matchmaker: poetry-making and policy-making, 1993). Suggestions have been made for such exploration, as with that of Voula Mega, as research manager at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, prior to the conference Myth of the City:

I do believe that planning systems need to improve the imaginative capacity to envisage a better future. I also believe that each citizen can be a little poet and contribute to the planning system if there is a context of effective participation and co-decision... [poets] can contribute in enhancing the enlightening abilities of planners (who in continuation will enhance the context and substance of citizen's participation (Link Poetry and Planning, 1995).

I contend that the thinking-into-language of philosophers is based in theoria, comprehension, and a resulting closure of wonder. I contrast this with the processes of poets, who I show to be moving thought into language via gnosis, apprehension, and a phenomenology opening onto inexhaustible wonder.

He illustrates this by the following figure, allowing him to raise the question as to what kind of response to wondering is gnosis, then, if it is not the theoria that produces philosophical comprehension?

Concrete implication: Dome-of-the-Rock

Sacred temples: In that same spirit, the images above may be provocatively compared to the cutaway images below of the Dome of the Rock -- the oldest Islamic building in the world -- on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Temple domes of other religions offer similar patterns. The question is whether there is an intuitive collective understanding of the reality embodied in such architecture -- echoing that hypothesized by physicists.

Requisite craziness: What justifies such juxtapositions and the questions they might raise? Succinctly put, it is ever more evident that the quality of thinking and organization currently associated with processes of governance and sustainability are inadequate to the challenge. The cognitive timidity in the face of the radical reframing possibly required is unworthy of a civilization "reaching for the stars" and potentially dependent on fusion energy. The latter is famously dependent on the craziest "Theories of Everything", as illustrated by the much-quoted statement by Niels Bohr in response to Wolfgang Pauli: We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough. To that Freeman Dyson added:

When a great innovation appears, it will almost certainly be in a muddled, incomplete and confusing form. To the discoverer, himself, it will be only half understood; to everyone else, it will be a mystery. For any speculation which does not at first glance look crazy, there is no hope! (Innovation in Physics, Scientific American, 199, No. 3, September 1958)

Investment in this possibility might offer more hope than seeking crudely to eliminate and demonize insights that may, in some as yet unknown way, be vital to the future creativity and diversity of humanity. It is also naive to assume that religion itself can be "eliminated", as currently recommended by scientists of the highest authority in the light of their own belief system -- however unquestionable (given the eternal verity it constitutes). The continuing implication of belief systems in governance is widely acknowledged (Future Challenge of Faith-based Governance, 2003).

Jerusalem, and the Dome-of-the-Rock, therefore offer a worthy focus for a theory that needs to be "crazy enough" -- in contrast to efforts to apply to it thinking of a quality already readily comprehensible in the Megalithic Period. Whilst a timeshare approach is well practiced by animals around waterholes in the wild (and by Christian denominations in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem), there is surely a case for exploring any possible degree of isomorphism with the more recent developments of spacetime theory and technology. Failure to do more than apply binary logic to complex systems is evident at the time of writing in the tragi-comic dynamics within the Christian Anglican community regarding homosexuality and the role of women in the priesthood (Church of England faces crisis as Synod rejects concession on women bishops, The Guardian, 10 July 2010). This is matched by the official initiative of the Catholic Church to recuperate those disaffected in pursuit of its own superior understanding of the transmundane and the need to avoid the fundamentally "theologically flawed" understanding of other faiths. Praying together is held to carry the risk of syncretism.

Signatures and "morphic resonance"? If such structures retain their function as strange attractors in deep cultural memory -- over millennia -- this does indeed suggest a capacity to catalyze a form of "cognitive fusion".

Sheldrake's argument is an exercise in pseudo-science. Many readers will be left with the impression that Sheldrake has succeeded in finding a place for magic within scientific discussion - and this, indeed, may have been a part of the objective of writing such a book (Nature, September 1981)

On the question of whether "crazy enough" is to be interpreted as "magic", it is appropriate to note one of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. One question raised by Sheldrake's morphic resonance, and "magic", is how recognition of a pattern in one domain triggers or elicits recognition of a pattern in another -- especially if the application to the new domain offers comprehension of a higher degree of order.

The Doctrine of Signatures remains an inspiration to homeopathy, necessarily deprecated from an allopathic perspective -- reflecting the manner in which cognitive capacity to respond to crises is currently handicapped (Remedies to Global Crisis: "Allopathic" or "Homeopathic"? 2009). For example in his review, Bradley C. Bennett (Doctrine of Signatures: an explanation of medicinal plant discovery or dissemination of knowledge?Economic Botany, September 2007, pp. 246-255) notes its fundamentally mnemonic nature, much-valued in traditional cultures. It might be inferred that a modern variant of that doctrine is associated with the emerging discipline of biosemiotics (Timo Maran, Mimicry: towards a semiotic understanding of nature, Sign Systems Studies, 29, 1, 2001). Whilst "mnemonic" may be somewhat disparaging in this context, it should not be forgotten the degree to which theoretical and practical discoveries -- even in physics -- are dependent on "mnemonic" triggers of the most mundane form.

Especially curious with respect to "signatures" is the universal assumption that individual identity can be established and confirmed by a "signature" -- notably with respect to financial transactions. This assumption is reinforced by a panoply of laws and administrative requirements, as well as concerns relating to "identity theft". It might be asked how it is so readily assumed that the subtlety of human identity is captured by such a simple graphic sign -- whilst recognizing that extensive use is made of graphology to infer the attributes of identity from that sign.

"Techno-semiotics" and intentionality: Whilst "biosemiotics" is accepted as a discipline, of potentially greater relevance to the above argument is the role of "techno-semiotics" -- on which, as such, there are as yet few references, despite the relevance of the afore-mentioned study of Robert Romanyshyn (Technology as Symptom and Dream, 1989). The topic is more commonly framed as semiotics of technology. Especially relevant to the semiotic implications of technology is the extent to which semiotics itself has been transformed, as noted by Per Aage Brandt (Semiotics, 2000):

There is however
a new way of understanding the notion of sign, this time with reference to intention rather than to
experienced external events... But the notion of intention is obscure, isn't it? Not entirely... it corresponds to volition: mental
preparation for some act to perform, or for reacting to something, or both, or for refraining from acting, or for
having others act in our place, or having others refrain from acting, and so on. We imitate and interrupt each
other in any dialogue or interhuman exchange (intercourse). Therefore, volitive contents incessantly become
meanings.

In this case the question is the cognitive implication of technology, as intentionality, namely how the dissemination and use of particular technologies affects the manner in which individuals apprehend reality -- of their own intention or through that of the producer of the technology.

The issue has of course been extensively explored in relation to human-computer interaction and internet technology. Reference is commonly made to people "booting up" in the morning, namely becoming conscious on awakening. Many more inferences may be explored (Computer Use as Philosophy in Operation: metaphors of the inner game, 2003). Might if be said that people live ever in hope of downloading a bug-free identity upgrade from the Manufacturer to which they subscribe (rather than from the deities of the Abrahamic religions)? Especially fascinating are the implications for cognitive operations -- "editing reality" -- offered by the multitude of options in applications like Photoshop. Of relevance is the recent concern expressed regarding a cover photograph of The Economist from which those accompanying Barack Obama (inspecting the BP oil spill) had been inappropriately deleted (Economist Defends Photoshopping Obama Cover, The Huffington Post, July 2010).

Given these considerations, hypothesizing significance to a degree of isomorphism between the Dome of the Rock and a twistor may not even be "crazy enough".

Eliciting and deriving interest: financial and otherwise

Interest: As noted in the introduction, "confidence" is implicated both in individually essential preoccupations and in those associated with the existential challenges of the collective, at least with respect to the global financial system. Curiously this may also be said of "interest". Clearly interest rates are a major factor with respect to the global financial crisis.

There is however a degree of ambiguity to what individuals experience as being of "interest" -- whether in the case of the financial system or otherwise. For those without the capacity to invest financially, the opportunities in which they can invest their personal energy and attention are of continuing concern. Even for those with no financial worries, and deriving appropriate interest from their financial investments, exposure to boredom is of major concern. Financial opportunities may indeed offer exciting possibilities.

More generally however are the sources of excitement to be derived beyond such income. These may of course be intimately related to services offered (for payment) as a feature of recreation and entertainment. Of course in an increasingly commodified world the question is the degree to which non-financial interests are displaced by financial interest.

Curiously, arguments have long been made against financial interest understood as usury -- namely interest on loans, especially when considered unreasonable. The question is then whether there is a corresponding form of unreasonable non-financial interest. Examples worth exploring might include: disaster tourism, schadenfreude, voyeurism.

Sustaining interest in the face of boredom: Despite the many possibilities for cultivating interest, for many -- especially for the young, the alienated and the elderly --the threat of boredom is a major concern. Whilst "interest" (financial or otherwise), is a matter of continuing and explicit concern to many, notably through cultivating "attraction", this is not the case with respect to boredom. Boredom might be said to be a "lipoproblem" around which strategies are designed, whilst ignoring its "negative potential" (Lipoproblems: developing a strategy omitting a key problem, 2009).

Yet it might well be said that it is the tendency to boredom (ennui) -- as a form of "cognitive entropy" -- which motivates much economic and other activity, as a means of warding it off through the quest for "cognitive negentropy". Consumption, stimulated by advertising, is readily to be understood from this perspective. On this quest change of any kind may be sought and welcomed for this reason -- even if it is directly associated with problematic consequences for society or the environment, or for the individual concerned.

In such a context the dynamics of sustainability must necessarily counteract any tendency to boredom which would otherwise destabilize the sustainable condition. As currently conceived, sustainability may well be inherently boring and be for that reason unachievable. Boredom is then the ultimate indicator of (un)sustainability.

Curiously the challenge of boredom is common to the cognitive pathologies of meditation practice and to the hyperactive behavioural disorders of increasing concern. Distraction from concentration and continuity is then experienced as a relief. Dysfunctional collective activity may be understood in the same light -- undermining any capacity to ensure the disciplined continuity of programmes on which sustainability depends. Change of government is often said to be simply due to the desire of voters for a change -- for something different.

Sustaining attractiveness and excitement: To the extent the boredom is only addressed indirectly, there is the possibility that many social processes depend on forms of alternation between contrasting conditions or modalities in order to sustain interest. This is evident in the case of changing governments, serial "reorganization" of programmes, avoidance of commitment in relationships, dependence on a variety of cultural activities, and the like. The success of cultural activities and happenings depends on their capacity to elicit a sense of "excitement" -- also the descriptor of a process in fundamental physics. Financial opportunities are commonly presented as being exciting as a means of attracting investors.

The question can be asked of any governance institutions -- such as the G8/G20 or the United Nations agencies -- as to when they last engendered a strategy that was held to be "exciting" by those expected to support it and fund it. Implicit in democratic change of regime is also the sense in which such change both corrects excesses of the outgoing regime and explores previously neglected potential. The sustainability of development might then be understood as dependent on cycles of alternation (Policy Alternation for Development, 1984). Crop rotation offers a valuable metaphor (Sustainable Cycles of Policies: crop rotation as a metaphor, 1988).

This concern might well be considered central to engendering integrative theories and frameworks. Initially they may well be experienced and upheld as the epitome of beauty and elegance, as explicitly stated with respect to the rich patterns of symmetry of many mathematical discoveries. Experience of them may subsequently fail to attract and hold interest for some -- as a consequence of pattern habituation and a quest for insights of higher potential. Others may continue to retain their interest and enthusiasm -- perhaps for deprecated alternatives.

The engagement with a fundamental theory (of everything) then becomes a demonstration of unsustainability in the light of their multiplicity (John D. Barrow, New Theories of Everything, 2008). Exploration moves on through time to more interesting possibilities, but without being able to design that process (and the disagreements it spawns) into the next theory -- as highlighted by the above-mentioned arguments of Rescher (1985) and Woods (2002). This failure might be considered somewhat equivalent to the earliest "slash and burn" policies that have proven to be the essence of unsustainability. The focus is on the theoretical product not on the theorizing process and engagement with it.

Gambling and casino capitalism: In a period of global civilization in which collective confidence is based on speculative investment, as identified by Susan Strange (Casino Capitalism, 1997), it is questionable whether the way forward should require that arguments be "true" or inferences "correct". The case made by statistician Vasily V. Nalimov with regard to a probability theory of truth merits consideration (Realms of the Unconscious: the enchanted frontier, 1982). Physicists are after all free to indulge in an Uncertainty Principle without considering the possible relevance of a more general variant applicable to psychosocial systems (Garrison Sposito, Does a generalized Heisenberg Principle operate in the social sciences? Inquiry, 1969).

With respect to gambling as such, the Special Report on Gambling (The Economist, 10 July 2010) notes that the legal gambling market totalled $335 billion globally of which two thirds came from lotteries and casinos -- despite dismal odds against success, such as one in 176 million. However nearly half of the population of the USA, and over two thirds of that of the UK, bet on something in 2007. Such enthusiasm, together with the sobering odds, highlight a disposition to risk taking which bodes ill for collective action on global disasters where people effectively bet on them not occurring. It would be naive to expect rational, rather than irrational, response to potential disaster.

Whether in the form of speculative investment or gambling, it is clear that there is a strange mix of risk taking with an imagined prospect of success -- highlighted by the subprime mortgage crisis. It constitutes a mix of interest, (faith-based) confidence and play -- together with a degree of pretence at seriousness.

WH-Questions as derivative psychosocial constructs

Curiously it would appear that neither science, religion nor governance "question" how questions arise. They are taken as givens to which appropriate response is urgently required.

Implication for "knowledge space": There is therefore a case for reviewing how questions, in any of these instances, relate to the development of this argument and any more radical approach to spacetime and cognition -- especially with respect to assumptions regarding the implications of any answers, or the promises of answers to come:

when: it is readily assumed that answers will emerge sometime (as with a theory of everything, or a viable approach to governance), or have already emerged (as with religions and their historical origins, or classical political/economic theories). These take little account of answers unrelated to such a conventional sense of time, especially when there are obscure references to perspectives beyond time (possibly eternal) with which few are able to engage effectively. Also relevant is the assumption that a more adequate answer can be readily communicated worldwide -- given global communication facilities -- without recognizing the lags inherent in the process of it being found meaningful "on the ground" by more than a few. The possibility of instantaneous communication ignores the many other calls on the attention of individuals and collectivities.

where: it is readily assumed that answers emerge somewhere (as in the quest for a theory of everything in various competing institutional contexts), or have already emerged (as with competing religions and their various geographical origins). These take little account of answers unrelated to such a conventional sense of place and its associated perspectives, especially when geographically focused answers imply a special (and possibly presumptuous) sense of "universality" with which few are able to engage effectively. Universal relevance may be contested from a local perspective, whether or not an answer formulated elsewhere can be successfully communicated to other locations where it is claimed to be relevant.

what: it is readily assumed that an "answer" is recognizable and comprehensible within the framework within which the question is asked. This assumption is the subject of a much-cited quote by Albert Einstein and is deliberately challenged by the nature of questions taking the form of a Zen koan. In the absence of any new paradigm, the recognized answer to challenges of governance may then be caricatured as a more effective "arrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic". Proponents of an answer vigorously proposed may well be me with the question "so what?".

which: it is readily assumed that "the" answer supercedes previously extant answers and is a natural focus for (universal) agreement (possibly for all time) -- eliminating answers thereby framed as inadequate, together with their associated contradictions and conflicts. As such the answer eliminates the need for choice. It is necessarily the right choice. Any other is regrettable, possibly requiring its forceful elimination. Such elimination is typically opposed in the light of perspectives necessarily held to be erroneous or misguided.

how: it is readily assumed that discovering an appropriate answer can be achieved through existing disciplines, methodologies and procedures. This takes no account of the extent to which the latter may effectively inhibit such a discovery process. Current search for answers is typically handicapped by this constraint -- exacerbated by firm convictions of appropriateness, encouraging the marginalization of alternative approaches. But "how" may also assume the acquisition of skills enabling comprehension of the answer -- possibly requiring an extended period of time, as with comprehension of insights into spacetime by physicists (as mentioned above). The time and resources to acquire such skills may be inaccessible to most of those who are expected to engage with such answers.

who: it is readily assumed that answers will be discovered by a well-identified individual or collective and that any action implied will be welcomed and undertaken by all. Such identification may be considered a prerequisite for consideration and acceptance of the answer as "authoritative". All are then expected to subscribe to the validity of the answer. The nature of "identity" in the case of both discoverer and "all", and how it is to be understood (or itself called into question), is assumed to be irrelevant. This raises the question of "who cares?" -- and of who can be made to care

why: it is readily assumed that any justification for the question follows from the logic of external challenges and priorities -- unadulterated by internal, existential preoccupations, namely the paradoxical implication of self-reflexivity.

Framed in this way, the questions imply the need for a subtler understanding of "knowledge space" and communication within it -- recognizing that any such understanding is necessarily subject to the same constraints. In principle this should be fundamental to knowledge cybernetics and cybersemiotics in any consideration of the meaningfulness of an answer and the role of ignorance in a global society in which the generation of knowledge in one context automatically ensures the generation of commensurate ignorance wherever that knowledge cannot be appreciated. More problematic is the degree to which knowledge in one context is reframed as intellectual property accessible to others under restrictive conditions (Dynamically Gated Conceptual Communities, 2004, Future Coping Strategies: beyond the constraints of proprietary metaphors, 1992).

"Cognitive container": Revisiting the circular and spherical diagrams above, with questions variously associated with the circumference or circumsphere, it is perhaps useful to understand the ambiguity of the different kinds of WH-questioning process in each case as "defining" a container. They variously inhibit the contents of that container from coming (dangerously and destructively) in contact with its walls -- as explained in the case of nuclear fusion. The container may of course only be viable if understood as toroidal -- with an associated movement.

It is with the contents of the container that "identity" and "sustainability" are then to be fruitfully associated -- at the nexus of the questioning process(es). Using the alchemical metaphor, the container functions as a form of athanor and the contents as alkahest.

In the light of the twisted torus -- twistor -- metaphor, self-reflexivity comes paradoxically into play in relation to the structure and boundary of the "container". Understood in terms of a Klein bottle, it has neither "inside" nor "outside" implying a paradoxical relation to any sense of "otherness". It would be delightful to believe that the archetypal university could aspire to function as such a container -- as separately explored (Towards a University of Earth?, 2010). More sobering is the possibility that humanity will be framed as inherently boring, and lacking in self-awareness, by extraterrestrials until this is evident (Self-reflective Embodiment of Transdisciplinary Integration (SETI): the universal criteria of species maturity? 2008). The taoist imagery is helpful in recalling that cognitive assumptions of insideness and outsideness are themselves to be called into question in relation to the individual.

Framed in this way, of concern is the nature of the communication process within knowledge space:

What is communicated? Is it appropriate to compare the significance of the most fundamental discoveries to which physicists and mathematicians aspire to the detection of the most violent phenomena in the universe (whether in the form of very high-energy gamma-rays or supernova)? How significant are these experienced to be by the population at large, if they are aware of them at all? Is the significance of any future theory of everything then to be compared to such a distant supernova? Might a magical new strategy for sustainable development be necessarily equally irrelevant to most?

How does intellectual property constrain dissemination and use of innovative responses to civilizational challenges? This is especially relevant with the ACTA treaty currently under negotiation with the intention of restricting the current freedom of the internet. Such constraints reinforce the effective inaccessibility of knowledge for which there is a cost, in addition to the effort of following multiple hyperlink trails to distant sources and downloading relevant documents.

Which insights are selected by whom as being meaningful or irrelevant? To what extent do search engines, with their algorithms and commercial constraints, effectively "groom" users and constrain the elaboration of innovative worldviews?

Why communicate in such a context?

It is curious the universal assumption that universal communication of a universally meaningful insight can be achieved -- or that this is desired by those on the receiving end. Or that this is fundamental to sustainable global governance. There a strong case for calling any such assumption into question, together with potentially oversimplistic assumptions concerning individual identity and universal values (Beyond the Standard Model of Universal Awareness, 2010). Needless to say, paradoxically, the merit of doing so needs also to be called into question. The space within which such discourse is possible might then be of great "interest" -- to some.

"Law of Requisite Simplicity": Within this context for comprehension of connectivity and coherence, and their credible communication, is it not appropriate to consider that the the cybernetic Law of Requisite Variety -- vital to governance as the principle of the Good Regulator -- calls for a complementary "Law of Requisite Simplicity". This might then be recognized as an equally vital principle of Good Governance -- and its necessary comprehension by the governed. How might this be distinguished from the Occam's Razor, the KISS Principle, or Parsimony -- in the light of Crabtree's Bludgeon:

No set of mutually inconsistent observations can exist for which some human intellect cannot conceive a coherent explanation, however complicated.

Such questions are relevant when it may be assumed that sophisticated insights into global governance will be readily acceptable. Such an assumption fails to take account of the educational levels achieved in an exploding population. In addition to insightful reframing of literacy and functional illiteracy, Wikipedia offers a sobering List of countries by literacy rate. More generally, however, is the question of what anyone is ignorant and how that impacts on approval on global governance initiatives.

Identity in time: sustainability and immortality

History may find it as extraordinary that a decades-old global civilization should have developed an obsession with "sustainability" -- as extraordinary as is now held to be the obsession with "immortality" of Chinese and Egyptian empires that lasted centuries, and were considered at that time to be eternal in many respects. This is curiously echoed in both cases with an obsession with overcoming impotence and sustaining sexuality -- so evident with the extensive promotion of aphrodisiacs on the web, to a greater extent than any other "remedy".

There is a continuing preoccupation with personal identity, manifest both in terms of existential problems and aspirations for self-esteem. These are echoed at the collective level. In both cases any challenge may be held as "insulting", thereby offering unquestionable justification for what may indeed be a violent response. For the individual, including leaders and the most eminent, a further consideration may be one of "legacy" -- of "leaving one's mark". This may be institutionalized through awards, memorials (even presidential libraries), and other devices. Members of the Académie française are also known as "Immortels". Within religious frameworks such preoccupations may be reframed in terms of an afterlife or reincarnation.

As extensively reported in the business section of the global edition of The New York Times, "the quest for immortality gets a modern tweaking by Silicon Valley minds" (14 June 2010). This reflected the preoccupations of some at the Singularity University on the NASA campus. There is expectation that in the near future, following a technological singularity, a superior intelligence will dominate and life will take on an altered form -- unpredictable and incomprehensible at this time -- in which human beings and machines will effortlessly merge, rendering death itself a thing of the past. How this will relate to a more predictable "memetic singularity" remains to become apparent (Emerging Memetic Singularity in the Global Knowledge Society, 2009).

Perhaps even more curious is the extensive review by The Economist (Methuselah's mixture, 24 July 2010) of a recent study of progress in research on ageing (David Stipp, The Youth Pill: scientistis at the brink of an anti-ageing revolution, 2010). As ever, its wealthy readers are necessarily sensitive to the challenges of benefitting from accumulated wealth hereafter. As introduced in the review:

For as long as people have been growing old, they've been wishing they didn't have to. The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the most ancient works of literature, chronicles the eponymous hero's quest for eternal life. Most religions offer an attenuated version of immortality in which some fuzzily defined soul endures even after the body has died. Medieval alchemists hunted in vain for the rejuvenating Philosopher's Stone; industrial-age quacks got rich off their patent elixirs. Today, cosmetics companies dance around truth-in-advertising laws to imply that their creams and lotions can keep the years at bay.

Ironically, as with "immortality", there is a question of what survives through time within a sustainability worldview. Humanity as currently known? Know-how -- to be inherited by another emergent and better adapted species, as previously explored (Authentic Grokking: emergence of Homo conjugens, 2003) ? Ecosystems of which humanity is an integral part? Culture? Mummies and architectural ruins -- for extraterrestrial tourists?

How definitive is it appropriate to be in such a context with regard to individual (or collective) "identity" in time? As summarized by a recent compilation on the matter (Joseph Keim Campbell, et al., Time and Identity, 2010):

The concept of time and identity seem at once unproblematic and frustratingly difficult. Time is an intricate part of our experience -- it would seem that the passage of time is a prerequisite for having any experience any all -- and yet recalcitrant questions about time remain. Is time real? Does time flow? Do past and future moments exist?... Indeed, questions about the metaphysics of persistence [of identity] take on many of the complexities inherent in philosophical considerations of time.

There are of course many answers on offer. However it is not clear that those that are "unproblematic" (clock time, identity cards, etc) do more than paper over the cracks associated with issues that are "frustratingly difficult".

The compilation avoids reference to classical worldviews -- such as those of the Egyptians and Chinese -- whose cultures were impregnated by such preoccupations. There is therefore a case for noting the strong argument regarding the future influence of non-Western cultural metaphors on global civilization that has been developed by Susantha Goonatilake (Toward a Global Science: mining civilizational knowledge, 1999). The widely recognized impact of South-East Asian cultures on global economies merits a degree of humility and open-mindedness with regard to such a possibility.

What traces exist of the centuries of reflection on time and identity in those cultures? For example, the implications of the classical Chinese taoist text known as the Book of Changes (Yi Jing) have been explored elsewhere (Documents relating to Patterns of I Ching / Tao te Ching). But what is to be made of the perceived interrelationship between Taoism, immortality and alchemy -- given their importance in that culture (Lu K'uan Yü, Taoist Yoga: alchemy and immortality, 1970). These subjects are of course individually deprecated by the Western worldview from which insightful guidance on sustainable global governance has for so long been awaited. Curiously, whilst physicists are now free to declare that time is an illusion and derivative -- even though unable to understand the matter adequately -- cultures which explored such possibilities millennia ago are considered unworthy of attention. Their economic emergence could be considered a healthy wakeup call, especially if they are likely to derive further competitive advantage from their traditional insights -- as argued by Goonatilake. Curiously again, alchemy is readily used by one of the most successful global financiers, George Soros (The Alchemy of Finance, 1988).

In the light of the argument above regarding both the possible functional implications of isomorphism and a desirable "Law of Requisite Simplicity", to what extent are the following two sets of images indicative of the cultivation of insights regarding the nature of the toroidal movement discussed above? These well-known images from classical taoist alchemy are the subject of extensive commentary by Carl Gustav Jung and Richard Wilhelm with respect to The Secret of the Golden Flower (Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi).

The Wilhelm translation is accompanied by a translation of the Book of Consciousness and Life (Hui Ming Ching) containing the second set of images more strongly indicative of such toroidal circulation and its relation to a central "chamber". The first is a classical image of the Buddha in which the symbolic elements carry considerable detail -- for those who explore them. The second is part of a set of images indicative of stages in the alchemical process of the "circulation of the light", clarified in the pathways in the subsequent images, and separately discussed (Circulation of the Light: essential metaphor of global sustainability? 2010).

Do such images constitute a decomplexification of the cognitive subtleties otherwise understood as associated with their preoccupation? As such are they a valuable communication compromise between understandings of the constraints of a Law of Requisite Variety and of a Law of Requisite Simplicity?

***

Whilst associated insights are readily deprecated from perspectives that are unable to learn from the extent of investment in them, their possible relevance may be more apparent in the light of Western exploration of the so-called Mandelbrot set and visual renderings of it as presented below. Mathematically it is a set of points in the complex plane, the boundary of which forms a fractal. It is a feature of complex dynamics.

The renderings below were generated through readily available software (Xaos) offering extensive interactive exploration of the detail of the fractal images. The images are presented vertically here (a software option) to be consistent with the widely-known Buddhabrot rendering initiated by Melinda Green in 1993.

Sonification of cognitive resonance

How is any message relating to sustainable development to be "heard" worldwide? Writing at the time of the Football World Cup, it is clear that such gameplaying meets a requirement of a Law of Requisite Simplicity, whilst incorporating an adequate degree of Requisite Variety -- capable of eliciting and holding widespread interest. The fascination with controlled movement of a (polyhedral) point in a binary context calls for recognition of its symbolic status in world imagination (Understanding Sustainable Dialogue: the secret within Bucky's Ball, 1996). More striking is the extent to which it was felt appropriate to accompany the patterns eliciting interest with sound -- that of the vuvuzela -- in a country whose president's appeal to its citizens was notably his ability to dance. Elsewhere the significance of the event was emphasized by the use of horns. Together these factors are acknowledged to achieved more for collective identity in many fragmented countries -- such as Spain -- than more conventional processes.

The suggestion above with regard to a Law of Requisite Simplicity as a necessary complement to the cybernetic Law of Requisite Variety (vital to governance) is reinforced by the arguments for sonification. The case for so doing has long been made to enhance the capacity to detect patterns in astrophysical data and has just been extended to render comprehensible phenomena signalling the existence of fundamental particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility, a 27 km circumference high-energyparticle accelerator (Pallab Ghosh, God particle signal is simulated as sound, BBC News, 22 June 2010). Sonification is the auditory display of data otherwise beyond the range of the human senses or their capacity otherwise to resolve -- as explored by the International Community for Auditory Display on behalf of the US National Science Foundation (Sonification Report, 1997).

Expressed differently, what is the cognitive value to society of a theory of everything -- or a strategy of governance of the global financial system -- that is so complex that few have the capacity to comprehend it? The dangers have been explored with respect to complex metrics (Uncritical Strategic Dependence on Little-known Metrics, 2009). The Law of Requisite Variety is intimately related to the principle of the Good Regulator. But how then to reconcile complexity with simplicity in governance? The challenge is more evident in a situation of information overload and information underuse (a programme of the United Nations University) and the possibility of a memetic singularity (Emerging Memetic Singularity in the Global Knowledge Society, 2009). It in this context that the role of the simplifications of faith and its symbols becomes evident -- whether those of religions, of science (for those obliged to believe in it), or those embodied in other widely appreciated cognitive devices, such as horoscopes.

Especially interesting, in the light of the above argument, is research indicating the toroidal cognitive organization of the harmonic connectivity of tones. A piece of music moves around in this space [more].
The results of psychoacoustic experiments by C L Krumhansl and E J Kessler
(Tracing the dynamic changes in perceived tonal organization in a spatial
representation of musical keys, Psychological Review, 1982)
of the inter-key relations of all major and minor keys can be represented geometrically
on a torus -- as shown by Benjamin Blankertz, Hendrik Purwins and Klaus Obermayer
(Constant
Q Profiles and Toroidal Models of Inter-Key Relations -- ToMIR, 1999)
in the following image.

Geometric representation of the inter-key relations
of all major and minor keys (derived from psychoacoustic experiments by Krumhansl and Kessler)

This is consistent with the application of the topological theory of orbifolds to music by Dmitri Tymoczko (The Geometry of Musical Chords, Science, 2006). The theory offers links to the work on comprehension (mentioned above) by Ron Atkin (1977) through simplicial complexes. It also links to curves characteristic of catastrophe theory, to the paradoxical forms of the Mobius strip and Klein bottle, and more generally to the definition of "orbihedron", the simplicial analogue of an orbifold. Will this prove to be a form of cognitive Rosetta stone of relevance to sustainable development and resilient navigation of the adaptive cycle? Ironically, Andrew Hodges, as one of the physicists seeking to give diagrammatic form to twistors (through twistor diagrams) provides links from his website to "twistor music" -- although it is not apparent whether such music facilitates their comprehension.

Mention was made above of the integrative function of the aesthetics of play. It is therefore of interest to note, with respect to sustainability over time, the remarks of George Rochberg (The Aesthetics of Survival: a composer's view of twentieth-century music, 2004):

Any discussion of duration in music must necessarily probe the nature of duration itself, particularly as it relates to human experience. Without even the most limited understanding of the relationship between duration and existence, it becomes virtually impossible to comprehend how music becomes the living, dynamic, artistic embodiment of time; for music's great power over all men fundamentally derives from the engagement of the sense of duration in the listener, perceived as motion, as movement, as the occurrence of successive events which culminate in a sense of fullness of experience, of a sonorous content whose passage in time is rich and meaningful. (p. 61)

In this context, of interest in the Vedic tradition are two of the attributes of the major deity Shiva: Kalamurtih ("Embodiment of Time") and Natesah ("Lord of Dance"). This is especially relevant in the light of the epistemological arguments of Antonio de Nicolas (Meditations through the Rg Veda, 1978) regarding the use of languages based on tone in his study of the four complementary conceptual languages of the Rg Veda considered necessary to hold the complexity of insights and experience. His explorations were associated with the musical theory of Ernest G. McClain (Myth of Invariance: the origins of the gods, mathematics and music from the Rg Veda to Plato, 1976). For de Nicolas:

Therefore, from a linguistic and cultural perspective, we have to be aware that we are dealing with a language where tonal and arithmetical relations establish the epistemological invariances....Language grounded in music is grounded thereby on context dependency; any tone can have any possible relationship to other tones, and the shift from one tone to another, which alone makes melody possible, is a shift in perspective which the singer himself embodies. Any perspective (tone) must be 'sacrificed' for a new one to come into being; continuity, and the 'world' is the creation of the singer, who shares its dimensions with the song.

In ancient times, the infinite possibilities of the number field were considered isomorphic with the infinite possibilities of tone...Rg Veda man, like his Greek counterparts, knew himself to be the organizer of the scale, and he cherished the multitude of possibilities open to him too much to freeze himself into one dogmatic posture. His language keeps alive that 'openness' to alternatives, yet it avoids entrapment in anarchy. It also resolves the fixity of theory by setting the body of man historically moving through the freedom of musical spaces, viewpoint transpositions, reciprocities, pluralism, and finally, an absolutely radical sacrifice of all theory as a fixed invariant. (Antonio de Nicolas, Meditations through the Rg Veda, 1978, p. 57)

Conclusion

The epistemological implication of the "sonification argument" of de Nicolas is clearly that consideration be given to the narratives of Inayatullah as "languages" individually incapable of strategically "grasping" and holding the complex challenge of global governance. Each such worldview needs necessarily to be "sacrificed" under certain conditions. It is together that they function as a resonance hybrid whose sustainable connectivity over time might be better intuited through music.

a standing wave -- where the "illusory" appearance of static invariance inhibits recognition of an inherent dynamic, whether with respect to any "loops", "bottle" or fractal

These, together with the twistor and the orbifold, are appropriately understood as geometric progressions beyond making "points", and developing "lines" of argument, within closed "circles" -- relevant to the design of the cocoon within which the noosphere is navigated (Metaphorical Geometry in Quest of Globality, 2009). There is an irony to the degree of isomorphism between the twistor (as depicted above), speculative cutaways of the "flying saucers" of UFO literature, and the mythological flying devices of Vedic literature (known as Vimanas, and including chariots, temples and palaces). Given the imaginative cognitive role in each case, with various implications of "light", these frame the possibility of a radically different understanding of "enlightened" identity, its transportation through knowledge space, and its engagement with it -- as implied by Arthur Young's quest for a psychopter.